A thought exercise

A winter tow today!!! With the wind blowing 25 mph right down the runway out of the west we could be at 1000′ over the main hangar when we got there! Of course we’d have some difficulty seeing the Pawnee at first with all the blowing snow and all, but like I used to do in Arizona you can just follow the tow rope until you’re able to see the tow plane! (Been there, done that multiple times, only it was dust not snow.) Lets just keep towing to the west ’cause at 1000 agl we have a westerly at 35 mph. Going up to 4000 agl we’ll need to head to Coral because our westerly has become northwest and it’s now blowing 56 mph. If we’re in a 1-26 we’ll make this flight last longest at minimum sink speed around 30 mph. We’ll  need to continue northwest as we’ll be traveling backwards over the ground at that speed! Don’t let the field get too far away. Finally I’ll assume you did good and kept the field in glide. You’ll need to plan your pattern carefully. Since we’ll have an extra 35 mph on down wind and we’ll add 17 mph to our pattern speed to account for the wind we’ll be booking right along. That runway will be out of reach if we don’t pay close attention. If we turn base at the east hangar drift should put us at about the right spot over the runway when we get there. Turning base to final just east of the east hangar will look much different as we’ll still be fairly high (assuming you started your pattern at 1000′.) However that 25 to 30 mph wind will make your descent much more vertical than you’re used to. You may not even get back near the tie down area! Whew, made a beautiful landing and everyone came out to hold the ship down. A 1-26 without the pilot’s weight could easily fly if a 25 mph wind had a gust of an extra 5 mph in it.

I wish to thank all the members who not only work on the maintenance items, but who support the club in ALL that it does. Thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! John Lincoln